(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the general field of silicon integrated circuits, more particularly to Dynamic Random Access Memories and capacitors used therein.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAMs), as used in silicon integrated circuits, represent semiconductor devices that offer information storage at very high densities. These high densities are a consequence of the fact that the basic cell of a DRAM (wherein a single bit of information is stored) comprises a single Field Effect Transistor (FET) and a capacitor. The minimum capacitance required for the basic cell to operate efficiently is about 20 femtofarads. This implies that the capacitor, rather than the FET, will be the limiting factor in determining how small the DRAM's basic cell can be made.
Capacitance value can be increased in any of three ways: the dielectric layer may be made thinner, the dielectric constant may be increased, and the area of the electrodes may be increased. The first two ways are limited by the availability of materials with suitable properties such as breakdown strength, high frequency characteristics, etc. so that most of the work to reduce the physical size of the capacitor in a DRAM cell has concentrated on increasing the effective area of the electrodes without increasing the amount of space within the integrated circuit that is taken up by the capacitor.
One of the geometries that has been successfully used to increase the effective area of the capacitor electrodes is to shape the capacitor in the form of a rectangular prism, at least one of whose surfaces is dimpled in some way such as rectangular or cylindrical depressions. The fork-shape capacitor is an example of this and is the geometry on which the present invention is based.
Dennison (U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,677 Mar. 8, 1994) describes processes that relate primarily to the DRAM cell as a whole, but also includes an example of a capacitor with a depression running along its center. This depression is the result of the various deposited layers following the natural contours of the structure, particularly the interior of the hollow rectangle that comprises the gate electrode. It is relatively limited in extent and so increases the effective area of the capacitor electrodes by only a small amount. The present invention achieves a more efficient geometry using a simpler process.